Today's Event –22nd January 2022

• 1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

• 1808 – The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army's invasion of Portugal two months earlier.

• 1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.

• 1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.

• 1879 – The Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War results in a British defeat.

• 1879 – The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 15 km away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.

• 1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

• 1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

• 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

• 1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.

• 1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

• 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

• 1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.

• 1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• 1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

• 1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.

• 1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

• 1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

• 1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

• 1957 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

• 1963 – The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and West Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.

• 1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.

• 1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.

• 1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.

• 1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.

• 1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

• 1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.

• 1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.

• 1973 – In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante

• 1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.

• 1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.

• 1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

• 1992 – Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

• 1998 – Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir

• 1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

• 2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

• 2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.

• 2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq

• 2009 – President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which is not implemented due to congressional opposition

• 2018 – Minnie Mouse receives her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of her 90th anniversary

National Events-

• India reported 3.37 lakh (3,37,704) new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on Saturday, 9,550 lower than yesterday. With 2.42 lakh (2,42,676 ) recoveries, active cases currently stand at 21,13,365. The total number of Omicron cases rose to 10,050.

• The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to censor future statements likely to be made by actor Kangana Ranaut and clubbing of FIRs against her with the one pending at the Khar police station in Mumbai.

• The proposed common entrance test (CET) for central universities, which the University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to hold from the next academic year, is not likely to have admissions to postgraduate courses under its ambit for now.

• The government’s decision to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate with the flame at the National War Memorial triggered a political furore Friday with the Congress attacking the government, saying it amounts to insulting history and memory of soldiers who died for the country.

• The Jharkhand Police on Friday announced that CPI(Maoist) zonal commander Maharaj Pramanik, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh, has surrendered before it. Police said that this surrender is part of an ‘ongoing effort’ to mainstream the Maoists based on the state’s surrender policy.

International Events-

• The world-famous Carnival festivities in Rio de Janeiro will be held in late April rather than the final weekend of February, as the number of coronavirus cases in Brazil spikes and the omicron variant spreads across the country.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the current world is “much more chaotic, much less predictable” than during the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States, and it’s dangerous because there are no “instruments” to deal with crises.

• The UK Health Security Agency on Friday designated a sub-lineage of the dominant and highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant as a variant under investigation, saying it could have a growth advantage. The BA.2, which does not have the specific mutation seen with Omicron that can help to easily distinguish it from Delta, is being investigated but has not been designated a variant of concern.

• Canada is doing all it can stop people smuggling across the US border after a family of four froze to death in a “mind blowing’ tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

• The official in charge of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team expressed optimism Friday about the future of the pandemic, saying the nation is “moving toward a time when COVID won’t disrupt our daily lives, where COVID won’t be a constant crisis but something we protect against and treat.”

Job alerts-

• DRDO- Research Centre Imarat Jobs for Apprentice and other posts. Last date 07 February 2022

• Chaudhary Bansi Lal University Jobs for Professor and other posts. Last date 08 February 2022

• NHM Pune Jobs for Medical Officer, ANM, Staff Nurse and other posts. Last date 03 February 2022

Sports-

• Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios said a coach and trainer of world number one doubles pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic had threatened to fight after their doubles match at the Australian Open on Friday.

• It was raining sixes and fours on a severely windy and cold evening as Asia Lions scripted a stunning six-wicket win over World Giants to return to winning ways in the Legends League Cricket at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground.

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is gearing up for the mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 as 1214 players have registered for it. BCCI secretary Jay Shah, in an official press note, shared that the IPL Player Registration closed on January 20th 2022. “Total of 1,214 players (896 Indian and 318 overseas players) have signed up to be part of the IPL 2022 Player Auction,” the release said.

• Simona Halep continued her rampaging start to the season with a 6-2 6-1 demolition of Montenegrin trailblazer Danka Kovinic to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday. The 14th seeded Romanian fired up on a baking hot day at John Cain Arena to completely overpower Kovinic, who had dumped U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu out in her previous match, becoming her nation’s first player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam singles tournament.

• BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has denied that there was any plan to show-cause of Virat Kohli for his comment on captaincy issue ahead of the Indian team’s tour of South Africa. “Not true at all,” Ganguly told

Technology-

• Instagram recently began testing paid subscriptions with a few content creators and influencers in the US, allowing them to charge their followers a monthly fee in exchange for exclusive content, live videos, stories, and a purple badge next to their username to show they are subscribed when they interact with the creator. While the paid subscriptions feature is only available to a few content creators in the US, the feature has now been spotted in India with pricing tiers to subscribe to some content creators in local currency.

• Samsung has begun taking pre-orders for the upcoming Galaxy S22 smartphone series, ahead of the launch of the smartphones. The South Korean manufacturer is set to launch Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra at the Galaxy Unpacked event that is scheduled to take place next month. Samsung is now allowing customers in the US to pre-order the next Samsung flagship smartphone and the upcoming Galaxy Tab S8, even before the company announces the specifications and features for these devices.

• Wordle has taken the Internet by storm, presenting a pleasant-yet-formidable daily challenge for people forced inside their homes across the world due to the ongoing coronavirus-induced pandemic. For those unaware, Wordle is a free-to-play game where you need to guess a secret five-letter word in no more than six tries. It can only be played on a dedicated website, and you don't need to log in or register to play. Owing to the open access and the simplicity of the game, Wordle has become an instant hit among netizens. So much so that even Google has come up with an Easter egg on its search page. 

• Authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China's military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party, at some of the world's most sensitive spots.

• Elon Musk doesn't appear to be amused with Twitter's move to let users have verified non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as profile pictures. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO called the integration “annoying” and suggested Twitter was wasting engineering resources on this effort instead of trying to curb spam activity on the platform. Twitter recently began rolling out NFT features for its users, initially allowing its Twitter Blue subscribers on iOS to use NFTs as their profile pictures. The latest option is slightly different from the usual round-type display picture on Twitter. This one has a hexagonal shape.

Economy –

• One of India’s largest thermal power producers, state-owned NTPC has floated tenders to procure over 14 million tonnes of imported coal despite elevated international prices as producers expect a potential shortage of domestic coal in the summer. Thermal power producers have consistently raised the issue of uncertainty of delivery of coal and are unlikely to be able to build up stocks to normative levels by March according to government officials.

• COMMERCE MINISTER Piyush Goyal on Friday told the industry that as free trade agreements (FTAs) are a two-way traffic, Indian consumers should not be forced to buy expensive domestic products in areas where other countries have a comparative advantage.

• Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in total from various investors during the last year while as many as 42 new startups crossed the valuation of $1 billion, making them unicorns, a report by industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) showed.

• Upholding the Gujarat tax department’s levy of Rs 480 crore purchase tax on ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (erstwhile Essar Steel),the Supreme Court on Friday held that the company was not entitled to any exemption from payment of the tax as it violated the 1992 incentive policy.

• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL),India’s largest company in terms of market valuation, has reported a 37.9 per cent jump in net profit (after exceptional items) for the quarter ended December 2021 at Rs 20,539 crore as against Rs 14,894 crore in the same period of last year.

Local –

• The pace of precautionary doses being administered in Delhi has dropped significantly as just 10,862 people were inoculated on Friday, taking the week’s average to 14,348 doses, compared to 21,016 shots the previous week, data from the CoWIN portal revealed.

• Taking a further dip in Covid cases, Mumbai recorded 3,568 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths on Saturday. 84 per cent of the people were asymptomatic.

• IN A unique move aimed at encouraging people to shun vaccine hesitancy and clear their dues at the same time, the South Dum Dum Municipality in North Kolkata has announced a 25 per cent discount on pending property taxes for residents who are fully vaccinated.

• The construction of the long-pending Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) extension project from Velachery to St Thomas Mount stations is on the verge of completion and is likely to be finished by July 2022, according to officials of the Southern Railways.

• Karnataka has conducted more than six crore Covid-19 tests since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. State Health and Family Welfare Minister K Sudhakar said Karnataka crossed the milestone on Saturday, becoming only the third state in the country to do so.

Person in News –

• Former India footballer and coach Subhash Bhowmik passed away on Saturday morning after undergoing diabetes and kidney related treatment at a private hospital in Ekbalpur, South Kolkata for the past two weeks. He was 72.

GK –

‘I4F Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund’ is a collaboration between India and which country?

[A] Indonesia
[B] Israel
[C] Germany
[D] France

Which country has inaugurated the ‘India-assisted social housing units project’?

[A] Madagascar
[B] Mauritius
[C] Maldives
[D] Myanmar

Which Indian state has launched the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the state and decided to set up ‘Infrastructure Financing Authority’?

[A] Goa
[B] Assam
[C] Arunachal Pradesh
[D] Chhattisgarh

Which Union Ministry released revised ‘Rural Area Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (RADPFI) Guidelines’?

[A] Ministry of Rural Development
[B] Ministry of Panchayati Raj
[C] Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

[D] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Which institution released the ‘Climate of India during 2021’ Report?

[A] NABARD
[B] India Meteorological Department
[C] NITI Aayog
[D] Environment Ministry